Moments
by DinoDina
Summary: A dinner date, some parallel universes, and tons of paperwork. Just a normal day at Torchwood.
1. Chapter 1

"Hey, Jack?"

"Yeah?"

"How'd you feel about getting dinner later?"

"Absolutely." A pause as Jack looked up from his paperwork and grinned. "Rift permitting."

"Of course."

Ianto smiled to himself as he left the office threshold and walked back down the stairs to his desk. He needed to reserve a table.

"I'm just saying," Tosh's voice came from the cog door as the alarm stopped, "it's never going to happen."

"You can't know that! You're a scientist, you _know_ alternate universes exist." Owen interrupted himself to grunt as he threw something heavy down. "And if you didn't believe it before, Torchwood's got to have proven that to you."

"I knew about alternate universes long before Torchwood, Owen," Tosh said with disapproval in her voice. "And pick that up. All I'm saying is that the chances of something falling into our universe from a parallel one is infinitesimally small."

"And _how_ do you know that?"

"Common sense."

"Ugh." Another bang as Owen put something else down; Ianto was sure that the coffee table creaked in protest. "But—wait, you've never calculated it?"

"No, never."

"Well, then, you can't _know_ anything! It's just a guess." Owen whirled around quickly and fixed his finger on Ianto. "You!"

"What?"

"What's the likelihood of something from a parallel universe falling through the Rift?"

Ianto shrugged. "I dunno. Really small, probably, if at all. Parallel universes are completely sealed."

"How'd you know that?"

Ianto shrugged again. It had come up in conversation with Jack, once, and while it hadn't been told in confidence, he wasn't sure if he should reveal it. "It's in the records. Anyway, why'd you want to know?"

"Just curious."

"He wanted to know if there was a universe where Star Wars is real," Tosh piped in.

"Oi! But… you know… she's not wrong. Besides," Owen gave Ianto a significant look. "You can't say you haven't thought the same about James Bond."

"It _has_ crossed my mind, yes," Ianto agreed. "And so has the possibility of the Star Wars universe."

Tosh tilted her head. "But?"

"If it was possible or in any way common, it would have happened by now. Torchwood has existed for over a hundred years."

Owen huffed. "That's true."

"That doesn't mean it's _never_ going to happen," Tosh hastened to say. "Just that it's not likely."

Ianto nodded. "Exactly."

He turned away from them back to his computer, finally settling on a restaurant. It was nice, reasonably priced, and had an empty table for the night that he hastened to reserve.

"Ah, well," Owen sighed, looking slightly disappointed. "I'll just leave you to this."

"leave us to this?" Tosh put a hand on her hip. " _You_ dumped this here, not me."

"And I have nothing to do with this," Ianto seconded.

Owen exaggeratedly rolled his eyes. " _Fine_."

"Doing your job won't kill you."

"I'm a _doctor_."

Ianto snorted. "You're an alien hunter."

"Alien-hunting _doctor_ ," Owen corrected. "But this isn't an alien, it's a piece of space junk."

"It's space junk of alien origin." Tosh bracingly thumped him on the shoulder. "The sooner we bring this downstairs, the sooner we can get the ten other pieces still in the SUV."

Ianto echoed Owen's groan of annoyance as he watched them walk away: that was ten more pieces of space junk that he'd have to archive later. He ran his hands through his hair as he thought of the hour the action would waste him, and leaned back in his chair, chancing a look up at Jack's office. He caught Jack's eye and waved; Jack waved back.

Maybe they'd be able to see a film after dinner. Ianto grinned and pulled up the local theaters' schedules, all thoughts of tomorrow's cataloguing forgotten.


	2. Chapter 2

**Many thanks to badly-knitted for inspiring a second chapter! It continues on from the first :D**

* * *

"Can you lift the armrest?"

Ianto looked down at it, a barrier between them, then up at Jack's hopeful expression. "I don't know, but try it. Some cinemas have rigid armrests to prevent inappropriate behavior."

"My intentions are completely honorable." Jack looked scandalized at the insinuation. "I just want to share the popcorn."

"Amongst other things," Ianto muttered, not falling for the act, taking the tub of popcorn Jack gave him for safekeeping. He could see that jack was prepared to force the armrest up if it wouldn't budge, and was already forming a letter of apology to the cinema.

But Jack gave a triumphant grin. "Got it."

"Good." Ianto handed over the popcorn and instinctively leaned closer so that their shoulders touched. Jack put an arm around him, citing the need for better access to the popcorn. Ianto gave a token protest: "Jack, the film."

"No funny business, I promise," Jack whispered into his ear.

Ianto doubled that, but Jack had been known to keep his word before. Besides, he didn't mind the 'funny business', just the part when they would inevitably get caught.

"The only good thing about bad films is making out in the back row."

Ianto had no desire to argue with Jack's reasoning, and settled comfortably into the seat, making sure to keep the popcorn in a spill-free position. He wanted to give the film the benefit of the doubt—over-the-top sci-fi was fun at times, at least according to Tosh and Owen, who watched it almost as religiously as they did romantic comedies—but the opening scene was enough to deter him. He'd stick to the classics, Ianto decided, and in the evident absence of such, would embrace the 'funny business'.

"Shit."

Ianto looked at jack, who'd stopped his groping. "What is it?"

"Text message." Jack sighed as he got out his mobile.

"Quiet, you'll get us kicked out." Ianto forced Jack's hands down to hide the mobile, but leaned closer to see the text. "Who's it from?"

"Owen."

Ianto felt a sinking sensation in his stomach. "Torchwood."

"We don't know that for sure," Jack said bracingly. He clicked on the text to read it: "'Millennium Falcon + passengers just fell through Rift. Don't need help. Tell Ianto I told you so.'" Jack looked up. "What does that mean?"

"Owen was curious about parallel universes, and someone coming through the Rift through one." Ianto rolled his eyes as he felt his own phone buzz with a text message, and reached into his pocket to take it out. "Ah, it's Tosh."

"What's she say?"

"'Owen's beyond happy. He's bonding with them.'"

"And by 'them', she means…" Jack trailed off with a questioning look.

Ianto shrugged. "Probably the passengers."

"Right." Jack looked at the screen in front of them, then back at Ianto. "They need us, don't they?"

Ianto bit his lip as he thought: on one hand, Jack was the leader of Torchwood—on the other, he was on a date. "I think Tosh and Owen know what they're doing," he said at last. "They'd call if they needed something."

"Yeah." Jack nodded. "They're big kids."

Ianto rolled his eyes without malice because Jack often joked of the team as his children and it was useless to interrupt him. He was right, of course. "Back to the film, then?"

"Of course."

Jack's lecherous grin preceded his wandering hands, and Ianto adjusted his grip on the popcorn. They'd have to make up for the time lost to viewing the messages, and he wasn't complaining.


End file.
